Steve Jobs emails were faked, says Apple

Emma Woollacott, 2nd July 2010

Steve Jobs is known for being a prolific emailer, but it seems he's not quite as prolific as some people have been making out.

Reproachful public relations staff have been telling journalists that a widely-reported exchange of views about the iPhone's reception problems is actually a fake.

Yesterday, Boy Genius Report published a series of emails which were given to it by a reader. The reader claimed to have received emails from Jobs saying, for example, "You are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down."

But after AppleInsider reported yesterday afternoon that a Virginia man had been shopping the emails around to potential buyers, Fortune decided to check. And Apple emphatically denied that the email exchange had take place.

The PRs have since said the same to everybody that's asked.

Over recent months, more and more customers have been getting personal responses from Jobs to complaints and queries - highly unusual, needless to say, from the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company.

What's interesting is the email exchanges that haven't been denied - which can, by default, now be assumed to be genuine. Job's responses to other customers have included "Just avoid holding it in that way," and, on a different issue, "Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal."